Founded in 2005, the Silmarillion Writers' Guild exists for discussions of and creative fanworks based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion and related texts. We are a positive-focused and open-minded space that welcomes fans from all over the world and with all levels of experience with Tolkien's works. Whether you are picking up Tolkien's books for the first time or have been a fan for decades, we welcome you to join us!
New Challenge: Bollywood This month's challenge offers songs, films, and tropes from Bollywood, the world's largest film industry based out of India, as prompts for fanworks.
Cultus Dispatches: Fandom Chocolate … or Authors Love Comments Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data provides insight into how comments benefit authors and which authors are most impacted by a lack of comments, with a digression on authors' perspectives one-click feedback like kudos.
A Sense of History: Passing Ships As Tolkien's characters in various texts gaze out to the sea, what do they see? What is brought by the ships coming out of the West?
Beta-Reader List Now Available The beta-reader list and profiles have been moved into our new system and are available again.
Nimruzimir, a natural philosopher recently out of his apprenticeship, hardly considers himself very important to anyone, least of all his colleagues. When his strange, prophetic fits bring him to the attention of the High Priest, however, he may find that his existence is less superfluous than…
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously…
My newly drawn map of Aman, as complete as I could make it.
Current Challenge
Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Turgon's Rock Opera
On the anniversary of the publication of "The Silmarillion," we’re reflecting on the importance of music in Arda with prompts that come from rock songs. Read more ...
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data shows that authors view comments as driving their motivation to create fanfiction. However, perception of comments by authors is part of a larger shift in fandom around how and how often fans interact with each other.
The arrival and departure of ships across the Great Sea carries mythic significance for the peoples of Middle-earth. The image of ships crossing out of and back into a mysterious West appears as well in Beowulf and is alluded to in Tolkien's tower analogy in his lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," where the tower allows those who climb it to observe the passage of the ships.
Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data shows that while most authors self-identify as taking their craft seriously, a growing subset of authors may be pushing that norm.
He and Diamond were visiting, though Pippin had been disappearing every afternoon, and taking Frodo and Elanor and most other lads and lasses in the neighborhood with him—though why they couldn’t use Pippin’s own pony, Sam couldn’t imagine.
So gathered they were to Bree, what lieutenants who could be spared, from their scattered watches west and east, for their chieftain had returned from his long sojourn in lands godless and mountains strange.
Aragorn returns from the South to tells his tales. Halbarad listens.
Elrond Week 2024
Elrond Week is a fandom event dedicated to Elrond Peredhel that will run from July 10th to July 16th on Tumblr.
July challenge at tolkienshortfanworks posted
The tolkienshortfanworks challenge for July has been posted to the Dreamwidth community. The thematic challenge is: original character or unnamed canon character; the formal challenge: fixed length of multiple of 50 words. New participants welcome.
Teitho June/July Challenge: Mentor
The June/July prompt for the Teitho challenge is "mentor" and invites fanworks about this relationship in Tolkien's works.
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Comments
The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.
Oh, you actually chose the quotation that initially drew me to it. Well done! Poor Beren! Poor Finrod! But I really love them for their response to this provocation.
Not a great fan of what Thingol has allowed himself to turn into.
So I told him elven fathers counted their daughters of little worth if they set their bride price so low, and that he hadn’t seen the last of me – and the next time we met, I’d have a Silmaril in my hand.”
In other words, Beren had made everything worse.
Made everything worse for sure. But I really admire that he stuck to Thingol in that case someone needed to say it! No wonder Luthien fell in love with him.
Heh, as soon as I saw that quote I pretty much had to, and Beren sprang immediately to mind for the person in Middle Earth most likely to say it.
No one will convince me that Beren is not a deadpan snarker between the 'for little price do elven-kings sell their daughters' and 'even now I have a Silmaril in my hand!'
It's good to get a glimpse of Finrod's feelings and assessment of the situation at this moment and your take is interesting and sympathetic.
I like Beren nervously twirling the ring.
I'd be interested to learn whether Finrod is just underestimating the impending problems with his cousins here or whether this introduces a different angle on their reactions.
I enjoyed so many different aspects of this; I appreciated the way in which the cultural differences played into the unfolding of Beren's situation (in particular his refusal to back down). Finrod's diplomatic skill is show nicely here, for all the good it may do him. That said, I wonder as well whether he reads the sons of Feanor accurately or no. I'd love to read more of this.
Like the others, I really loved your exploration of the cultural differences between mortals and Elves. Only a life can pay for a life... *shivers*
I also liked the idea that Beren could, perhaps, have begged for a less impossible errand. I doubt Thingol would've agreed! After all, he very much doesn't Beren as a son-in-law! But it's an interesting thought. Of course, Beren is too proud for that!
Yes, I think the initial assessment is pretty spot-on... and applies to Finrod as well. (He should've known better than to swear an oath!)
Comments
The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.